Antarctica: The Adventure of a Lifetime - Part 3: Photographer's Delight at the Lemaire Channel and Kayaking through the Empire of Ice in Pleneau Bay

The rainbow turned out to have a meaning after what myself and the other campers were lucky enough to see when camping on Leith Island. Following the amazing sunset seen from Leith Island while camping, it was difficult to imagine a sight just as wonderous. But whereas it was pure coincidence that a spectacular red sky pleasing to the camera lens appeared shortly after a rainbow, there is often a little more truth in the age-old expression ‘red sky at night, shepherds delight’.

Human ability to observe and remember patterns, including in the skies and with the weather, often has deeper scientific meaning behind it. Red skies are caused by dust and particles being trapped in Earth’s atmosphere scattering the blue light and leaving behind the red. Red skies at sunset mean that high pressure is moving in from the west, which often means that the following day will likely be dry and pleasant. Passed down through several generations, including through times when observation and experience were relied upon in the absence of modern meteorological data, even today making predictions for tomorrow’s weather based on ancient sayings often turn out to be quite accurate.

Surfacing humpback whale fin

The delight became a reality the next day when cruising towards the Lemaire Channel. With its steep sides and many icebergs, the Lemaire Channel is, for many, the jewel in the crown of Antarctic cruise routes. Though the water in the Lemaire Channel is often still, the usual abundance of icebergs can sometimes mean that ships can’t make the passage through. But while the captain and crew of MS Expedition assessed the situation, the passengers were treated to a display by another of the Antarctic region’s resident species. After having been ‘welcomed’ on land by curious penguins, it was the turn a group of surfacing humpback whales who came close to the ship to entertain the passengers.

Reflections in the Lemaire Channel

The visit of the humpback whales was a ‘curtain raiser’ to a sight of wonder that was about to unfold. After being cleared to pass through the Lemaire Channel. A quality that water has, unlike rock or ice, is in its receptivity to its surrounding conditions. Throughout the voyage, it had been seen and certainly experienced as to how water responds to wind.  But shielded from the winds by Booth Island off the coast of the peninsula, the calmer waters of the Lemaire Channel, also known as ‘Kodak Gap’, showed water’s other receptive quality in being able to let in light. The bright sunshine and cloudless sky that ancient weather forecasting techniques provided plenty of light for the Lemaire waters to invite in presenting magnificent mirror-like reflections of the channel’s steep sides. The meaning that the red sky at the camp appeared to have brought to MS Expedition’s passengers was ‘red sky at night, photographer’s delight’.

Blue ice and leopard seal, Pleneau Bay

The quality of the Lemaire’s water inviting in sunlight as well as its response to its surrounding calmness had provided such inspiring sights, but it was the properties and qualities of its solid version plentiful in Antarctica that really brought out the sense of wonder in me – ice. Often taking regular use of ice in the form of ice cubes for granted, it is easy to forget just how very strange and often very beautiful stuff ice is in many ways. Seeing naturally formed ice in its natural environment opens us to its unusual and unique qualities. It most visible quality in Antarctica is that, due to its lower density that its liquid form, ice can float on its liquid version, something that no other solids can do. The opaque quality of Antarctica’s icebergs not only made them shine like jewels, but also opened gave off some beautiful shades of blue from the bright sunlight passing through them, with blue being the only colour on the spectrum not absorbed by the ice.

Kayaking at Pleneau Bay

To gain an appreciation of the wonders of ice, its relation to the Antarctic-eco system and its wildlife, it helps to experience it up close and personal. When the ship dropped anchor at nearby Pleneau Bay, such an opportunity came in the form of a kayaking excursion. Though I had previous experience of kayaking, including kayaking around ice in Svalbard, kayaking through Pleneau Bay I felt wasn’t something that experience alone can prepare one for. A round trip of kayaking of around 12 km, as well as being obviously demanding physically and mentally, it was also heavily dependent on the senses. In an environment where glaciers and ice is so active, navigating a kayak around floating ice and being alert to waves caused by a calving from a glacier are only the first of many aspects to take into consideration when setting out on such an adventure. Another aspect of ice that makes it so strange is that even though it floats on water, it is also obviously hard enough to present many hazards to kayakers. The size and shape of Antarctica’s icebergs also often have hidden hazards. One that I found myself having to be alert to especially was that of overhangs of ice in icebergs which could carve unexpectedly, resulting in serious injury to a kayaker.

Despite the challenges that Antarctic kayaking presents though, seeing icebergs and glaciers from the water surface opens one to their true scale, including how huge they are, including arches that form within icebergs. Taking into awareness the process of how icebergs form, one beings to notice not just their shape and content, but the journeys that their formation has brought over many thousands of years. Kayaking in such extreme environments often gives us some insight into how early explorers, including the Vikings, in the absence of modern navigational aids, including magnetic compasses, would have had to have been so reliant on their senses. Beginning as falling snow in Greenland, the start of the journey of many Antarctic icebergs calved in the 21^st century goes as far back and even further than when Norse explorers first set off in longships. In this way seeing icebergs is almost like seeing thousands of years of human history compressed and frozen in time.

Double arched iceberg, Pleneau Bay

Leopard seal on ice

From the building of the Pyramids, the rise and decline of the Inca Empire in Peru, the height of the European colonial empires in the 19th century through to the present-day world order, human history has seen many empires and powers rise and fall. Meanwhile, during a similar chronological timescale, icebergs formed after a process of thousands of years at the end of the world in Antarctica often take on some dramatic shapes, some of which almost look like human created symbols of empire including pillars and arches. To the delight of kayakers, including myself, on the outskirts of Pleneau Bay, a huge spectacular double-arched iceberg came into view, which looked like it could be an entrance to an Empire of Ice. Kayaking through the ‘empire of ice’ at Pleneau Bay also took me up close and personal with its wildlife including penguins, leopard seals and crabeater seals. What was especially fascinating to notice was how wildlife makes the flows of water and ice their own, with sightings of penguins and seals floating on ice to catch fish and swimming under and around the ice.

One small step, setting foot in Antarctica

The awareness that I felt I gained from the kayaking experience also helped me to make the most of what I felt was the experience of a lifetime within the trip of a lifetime, setting foot onto the Antarctic mainland at Brown Base. Also remembering my mindfulness of walking practices, when stepping off the Zodiac onto the Antarctic mainland, I applied awareness with each step, also enabling me to take care to stick to the marked route so as not to disturb wildlife. This approach also took me back to one of my inspirations to take on such an adventure, the Apollo Moon Missions. Setting foot on the Antarctic mainland was my personal Neil Armstrong moment.

As well as a great achievement for humanity, the Moon missions also brought back a different human perspective of our native planet when seen from space, most famously the photograph ‘Earth Rise’ taken by NASA Astronaut Bill Anders on board Apollo 8 while orbiting the Moon in 1968. Anders later said that he felt that though the purpose of their mission was to explore the Moon, they ended up discovering Earth. Similarly, when visiting Antarctica and viewing its icebergs, one can discover the rest of the world, including the impact of that their journey have had on the evolution of life. If ice was heavier than its liquid version, oceans may well have frozen from the bottom upwards, meaning that plant life may have been trapped within ice, frozen away from the shores, unable to provide enough oxygen needed to sustain life over a long period.

For me though, holding in awareness of the reflections in the Lemaire Channel, opening to awareness needed during the kayaking excursion and being aware of each step when setting foot on the Antarctic mainland helped me to rediscover myself in a spiritual way. But no doubt though, the adventure of a lifetime will have memories that will last a lifetime.

A huge thank you to the wonderful G Expedition crew about MS expedition for a wonderful and memorable experience of the seventh continent.